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Of course, that same freedom does not apply to REMOVING applications. unless I root my phone, there are several applications pre-installed that I cannot remove, and nag me every few weeks to buy.. CityID, i'm looking at you, as well as my cell phone companies "Navigator" product, which is much less useful than Google Maps, which is also installed on the darn phone

Your beef here is with your carrier and to a lesser extent the phone manufacturer, not Google/Android

McCain didn't choose her. Once they realized that the election was almost unwinnable, the Republicans picked her to finish throwing the election while at the same time gathering massive media attention.

I recently happened upon an old Popular Mechanics magazine from the 1950s. It dealt extensively with automotive topics. It struck me how much people had to know about their car's inner workings to properly maintain it. Today, you really don't have to know what kind of spark system your car has, or what kind of plugs it uses, or what kind of fuel delivery system it has. You don't have to clean varnish out of the carbuerator every year, or have the piston rings done at 60k miles. You don't have to replace the plugs and points every 10k miles. Just keep gas in it, make sure you change the oil, and take it somewhere for minor maintenance every year or two.

Cars have swung too far in that direction. More and more, they're getting to a "no user-serviceable parts" state. You're expected to bring the car to the expensive dealer for everything, or just replace the car when big maintenance is required. Recently, one of the headlights on my wife's car burned out. I checked the manual, it said to turn the steering wheel all the way to the opposite side, remove a couple clips, pull the fender liner back, and reach up and in to remove & replace the bulb.

I spent 30 minutes in the driveway attempting to follow those instructions, but the liner would not move far enough for me to get my arm in there. Finally I relented, spent 15 minutes putting it back together, and sent my wife to the dealer. It took the dealer 45 minutes to do, and they had to remove the wheel completely (the new bulb & labor were covered under warranty). IMO, this is a ridiculous amount of work required to replace a light bulb.

Chrysler PT Cruiser? The battery is buried behind the right front suspension. There's a couple terminals located under the hood if you have to jump the car, but good luck replacing the battery in the Sears parking lot.

How would this benefit Rep. Thompson's campaign & PAC funding? "Defense Electronics" firms are the #3 contributor to his campaign & leadership PAC for 2009-2010. "Computers/Internet" were #3 for the 2008 campaign.